Community-based Participatory Research in the Geosciences as a Mechanism for Broadening Participation
Abstract
As geoscientists seek to address urgent challenges related to anthropogenic environmental and climate change, approaches to combining research and problem-solving are more frequently turning to communities and an emphasis on place-based work. Learning from examples in other fields, this research has considered new models of work that can be characterized as participatory or aligned with the principles of "co-production"; where problem identification, research approaches and products are pursued in collaboration with local community members. The NSF project ASPIRE (Active Societal Participation in Research and Education) has sought to encourage this approach to geoscience research with an emphasis on underrepresented communities as a mechanism to broaden participation. Our model has provided funding support to mobile working groups to launch community-based participatory research in underrepresented communities across the United States. Social science carried out in parallel to our support of these groups has focused on understanding the leadership characteristics of individuals who facilitate this work as a means of improving our ability to promote and support scientists who choose participatory research in their careers. We have also evaluated whether the mobile working group is an effective means of encouraging boundary spanning in underrepresented groups with the geosciences. We will report our challenges and successes in ASPIRE along with a literature review documenting the prevalence of this work in the geosciences to date.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMED31C0981H
- Keywords:
-
- 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION;
- 1974 Social networks;
- INFORMATICS;
- 6630 Workforce;
- POLICY SCIENCES & PUBLIC ISSUES;
- 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUES